Wendy Hall receives honorary degree and city freedom in Greece

Professor Dame Wendy Hall of the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia group in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton was honoured by the Aristotle University, the largest university in Greece, in recognition of her contribution to the foundation of Web Science and her distinguished service to science. The ceremony was held at the Teloglion Foundation of Arts and Science and was followed the next day by a civic ceremony when Professor Hall received an honorary citizenship award from the City of Veria for her contribution to the establishment and support of the Graduate Program in Web Science at Veria, Greece.

The Programme in Web Science is based on the study of Web assessment, mathematical modelling and operations combined with business applications and societal transformations in the knowledge society. It is administered by the Department of Mathematics of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and supported by the Municipality of Veria and Cyta Telecommunications.

During the ceremony, Professor Hall spoke about how the Web affects interpersonal relationships, safety on the Internet and the enormous role it plays in education. She also refered to distance education and the benefits of the postgraduate programme in Web Science for the city of Veria. "Innovation, Competitiveness and Development", would be the greatest benefits, she said.

After the ceremony Professor Hall visited the campus and met students, concluding her visit with the words: "I am honored to say that I teach in Veria."

Professor Dame Wendy Hall is Managing Director of the Web Science Trust and one of the founders of the discipline of Web Science. She is currently President of the Association for Computing Machinery, the first non-North-American to hold this position.